Small Potatoes
by RosieMary
Summary: What if it hadn't been Eddie Van BlundHt? NOT AN ALTERNATE ENDING. Disclaimer- Mulder and Scully aren't mine, they belong only to CC, and of course to each other. I don't own EVB and I don't see why anyone would want to.
1. Wee Tatties

_Scully was sitting on the floor in front of the sofa in her apartment. She had a book and papers in front of her. There was a knock on the door, and she got up to answer it. Through the peephole, she saw "Mulder" She opened the door. _

_"Mulder, what's up?"_

_Scully? Is this a bad time?" _

_No. No uh...come on in." she noticed that he was carrying a wine bottle._

_Who's that for? _

_"Uh...us." _

_She stared at him for a moment, the took it from him._

_Okay. Have a seat" _

_She went to the counter to open it, giving him a confused glance over her shoulder._

_So uh...what are you working on?" _

_He grabbed a spoon and examines himself in the reflection, Scully got wine glasses from the cupboard._

_More autopsy data. You know, everyone at the lab found Mr Van Blundht pretty fascinating. We discovered an additional anomaly related to the hair follicles in his scalp. I can't even begin to guess at the nature of it until we can run it through the transmission electron microscope."_

_Sounds very interesting." _

_She brought the wine and sat on the sofa next to him. She studied him for a second, then poured the wine into the glasses. _

_"Yes, it is. So seriously Mulder, what's going on? You okay?" _

_She handed him a glass._

_He nodded._

_" Mm. I was just kind of knocking around, I was just thinking... Uh, good. We never really...uh...talk much...do we?" _

_What do you mean like...really talk? No, no we don't, Mulder." _

_Well what's stopping us?" _

_She looked at him, looked away then sighed._

_A while later, a fire blazed in the fireplace and Al Green's "Ain't It Funny How Time Slips Away" is played in the background._

_So there we are at two o'clock in the morning, me and my moire taffeta dress and Marcus in whatever the hell it was he was wearing -"_

_He poured her the last of the wine._

_" thank you very much. It had a um... a kelly green cummerbund on it. Anyway, so, I know that Marcus is thinking that it's now or never, and I'm thinking..." _

_"What are you thinking?" _

_"I'm thinking "what is that siren I hear getting louder?" _

_"No way! Who called the cops?" _

_It wasn't the cops it was the fire department. My friend Sylvia and her idiot prom date ..." _

_Berwood?" _

_... had built this campfire that went totally out of control and so we all had to ride back on the um... what do you call it? The um, the pumper truck. Yeah. Marcus was the twelfth grade love of my life." She laughed. "I can't believe I'm telling you this!" _

_"I don't believe you haven't told me before. "_

_No, I'm seeing a whole new side of you, Mulder." _

_"Is that a good thing?" _

_I like it." _

_Do you ever wish things were different?" _

_What do you mean?" _

_"The person you wanted to be when you grew up, when you were in high school. How far off from that did you end up?" _

_Career wise? Miles off target." _

_No, no, not just that. Do you ever wish...that you could go back and do it all differently?" _

_"Do you?_

_"Mulder" moved closer to her on the sofa. Her eyes widened for a moment and she let out a quick sigh of surprise. He leaned closer to her and just as their lips were about to touch, the real Mulder burst in the door. She looked at him in amazement, and he looked at the two of them on the sofa in equally confused. Scully looked at '"Mulder", then pushed him away and quickly stood. While the real Mulder continued to stare at them, Eddie slumped back dejectedly and morphed back into himself. Scully stared at him in amazement, while Eddie gave her a shrug. _

Scully awoke with a jolt and sighed. _That Night._ The night when everything she'd ever wanted fell into place. Could have been hers.

Then it was ruined.

_But it wasn't real, it was an illusion. _she reminded herself.

Mulder hadn't been angry with her. Confused, even hurt. But not angry. At least not for long.

How could he have been? At the time they had both thought the cancer was terminal.

She and Mulder both knew she would never use that to get sympathy from anyone. But it must have had an effect.

Now she could only dream about what might have happened if it hadn't been for Eddie Van BlundHt.

She did dream about it. Almost every night for a week.

She rolled over and tried to get back to sleep.

_Mulder moved closer to her on the sofa. Her eyes widened for a moment and she let out a quick sigh of surprise. He leaned closer to her and kissed her. When she didn't protest and kissed him back, he lifted her up and carried her to her bedroom. HE laid her down on the bed-_

Scully awoke again, alone in her bed.

_This has to stop. _she realised. _I can't keep going on like this._

Dana Scully wasn't usually one to think about "What could've been" except when it came to her career. And of course Mulder.

They were so close. But she wanted to get closer. If something happened she would be spiritually closer to him than she had ever been with anyone in her life before.

"We have to talk," she said aloud. "_Really _talk."

She knocked on his door.


	2. Doppelganger

Discalimer- I don't own Mulder and Scully, so Chris Carter and his minions- PLEASE don't sue, it ain't worth it. Seriously, I live in a box. That's nothing. I USED to live in a box with a sink. Take pity, Oh great one!

_**Doppelganger**_

She knocked on his door.

_He's not here. _she decided before two seconds had even passed.

She turned to leave, then stopped.

_Be calm! _she instructed herself and took several deep breaths.

She knew she could do it, Eddie Van Blundht had charmed her and he never even knew her.

She knew Mulder so well she _thought _she could probably work out what he was going to say for anything she said.

But he always managed to surprise her.

She worked up the courage to knock again, then almost ran for it.

This was very out of character for her, she always seemed so brave and so strong. Especially in front of him.

Now it didn't seem to her like she had the courage to wait outside his door.

But she forced herself, she had to see him. Even though she knew she'd never say half, or even a quarter of the things she wanted to say.

She doubted he'd say half, or even a quarter of the things she wanted to hear.

But she had to see him.

She knocked one last time and although her whole body froze up in tension she didn't think about leaving again.

She started to get worried. He couldn't have been away. He'd have called.

He couldn't have been with friends. Apart from the gunmen she was his only friend.

_Unless he's with some sort of doppelganger version of me..._she thought.

Then she thought _Shut up Dana!_

A doppelganger was meant to act out a persons deepest fantasies. To do what the person would never have the courage to do themselves.

She dreaded to think what her own one of these fictional creatures would do if it was around Mulder.

She didn't exactly dread. She dreamt.

She was about to phone his cell when he called from behind her.

"Hey Scully!"

She jumped.

"Mulder!" she half gasped.

He chuckled softly.

"Who were you expecting? this is my apartment building after all."

"You didn't answer the door."

He looked at her strangely.

"I was just at the store. Is something wrong Scully? I-"

"What did you buy at the store?" she interrupted him.

"What?" he looked just as confused as she felt.

"Did you buy anything?" she asked again.

"Just the bare essentials."

_Enough with the pointless, not to mention mindless small talk! _she scolded herself.

"Do you want to come in?" he asked, sounding slightly concerned.

"No." she answered too quickly. "I mean, yes." she corrected herself.

"Okay." he unlocked the door and they went inside.

She sat on the couch, her knees felt weak and she was worried she'd fall if she didn't get control of herself.

"What's up?" he asked, going to sit beside her.

"What?"

"Well, you turn up here at this late hour, I'm assuming you want to talk and it can't wait."

She looked around the room.

The two of them. Check.

Couch. Check.

Merrily blazing Fire. Mulder had no fireplace. C'est la vie.

Wine.

_Wine. We don't have wine! _Scully panicked.

"I just wanted to talk."

"About something in particular?"

"About anything."

"We have a long car drive tomorrow, well technically today, couldn't we have talked about anything then?" he teased her.

"Yeah, you're right, I'm sorry, it's late." she stood up hurriedly to go.

"No, no wait. You know I always want to talk about nothing in particular with you no matter what time it is."

"Well, it really is nothing in particular." she warned him.

"Fire away." he smiled.

"Well, we don't really talk much do we Mulder?"

"Of course we do._ There's a killer. It's alien, no it's not, yes it is, no it's not, yes it is! _see? I've memorised some of our best conversation."

She sighed. "Exactly. I mean _really talk._"

"Sure we do. I know almost everything about you."

"But do you know it through conversation?"

"How else would I?"

"Maybe you know less about me than you think." she stated, not unkindly.

"Try me." he challenged her, with a charming smile.

She pretended to think hard.

"Favourite colour?"

"Easy, apple green."

"Childhood fear?"

"Hopefully not aliens... okay, clowns."

"But that one's obvious Mulder, every child's scared of clowns."

"Don't ask the questions if you don't like the answers Scully."

"Okay...true hair colour?"

"Oh, don't make me laugh!"

"What about...my badge number?"

"I don't know you're badge number!"

"Think about it."

"JTT0332...I don't know..."

"JTT0331613."

"Right, that's what I meant."

She moved closer to him on the sofa. He looked surprised but he didn't move away.

"Lets stop talking now." she muttered.

"That's different from 'Mulder, shut up' " he commented.

"No, it's no different, I'm still Scully."

She moved closer still.

Just as he leant towards her, she moved away abruptly.

"Does that store you were at sell wine after 11 pm?" she asked breathlessly.

He looked vaguely hurt. "You have to be drunk to kiss me Scully? Or is this some overblown romantic gesture?"

She sighed, the moment was definitely gone.

"It's because that's the way this happened last time, isn't it?" he asked.

"I don't know what you're talking about." she lied.

"Eddie Van Blundht." was all he said. They both knew he didn't need to say any more.

"Mulder..." she worked up the strength to keep going. "Do you believe in doppelgangers?"

He felt it would be too immature not to answer her, besides, he was interested in where the conversation was going.

"This is me you're talking to Scully. I won't dismiss anything quickly."

"What do you know about them?"

"Aren't we meant to be off-duty?"

She gave a small nervous laugh. "_We _are never off-duty."

Mulder privately agreed, and wondered if this bothered her.

"All I know is that they're supposed to be exact doubles of a person. Appearing in many different forms, many different ways, mimicking actions and causing havoc and sometimes-"

"Sometimes even carrying out that same persons deepest wish, their dreams, their strongest fantasies?" Scully interrupted him.

"Well, yeah."

He studied her face carefully, as he had did many time before. _She _surprised _him _sometimes. She wasn't ranting about some psychological explanation for it and saying with his fancy Oxford degree he should know the same.

"Mulder...do you think that perhaps, maybe it's possible that Eddie Van Blundht was in a weird way a version of your doppelganger? Or a representation of one?"

He wasn't going to admit he had thought of that before. Scully was, surprisingly, the religious one, he didn't want to admit that maybe the disaster with Eddie _could _have been a sign from God. To tell him to act quickly, or he and Scully may have been nothing more than work-partners. Mulder made that last thought disappear. He knew they would always be more than work-partners. He'd always care about her more than he cared about anything else. He went over all of this before he decided to answer her.

"Scully...I've did quite a few things in my life that I regret. Not acting sooner with you is the biggest. It will always haunt me, that I know that could have happened with us, if I'd only acted a certain way, did certain things right. I wanted to know you like he did that night, and treat you the way he treated you. But you won't understand this Scully, how could you..." he sighed. "Before your...before the cancer- despite petty things that seemed huge then, the X-Files closing, little arguments over the paranormal and sunflower seed shells left lying around the office- I always thought I could never lose you. I was never worried about it, although I worried about you I always put these thoughts to the back of my mind. Then, when I thought something might happen to you, I was too late. He beat me to it. He got to you first. And any effort made by me would just look like a pathetic second attempt."

"Mulder," she began, "Eddie Van Blundht disgusts me-"

Mulder nodded, but he was purposefully looking away from her. He finally made himself and he finally saw the soft blue eyes, full of kindness that he had fallen in love with and memorised.

"I know that." he said softly.

"He was only after one thing," she continued flatly. "Waiting to make his move,"

She'd also started staring at the ground. She looked up to face him.

"And if you were to kiss me now," she carried on, her voice shaking slightly, but what you could hear was nothing compared to the way she and Mulder both felt inside.

"if you were to kiss me now, after so many years of mutual friendship, and respect, and trust... the key qualities to any relationship, then I'd know."

He didn't even need to ask what she'd know. He just stopped putting of the inevitable, and kissed her.

"You know?" he repeated.

"I know." she replied.

_**The End**_


End file.
